Sui has quickly established itself as a powerhouse within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, demonstrating incredible success and creativity. Since its launch, the Sui DeFi sector has exploded. Its Total Value Locked (TVL)—the aggregate value of assets contributed to its lending pools—skyrocketed from about $25 million to over $2 billion by mid-May 2025. This increase catapults Sui into third place among non-EVM chains by TVL, highlighting its growing importance in the blockchain ecosystem. Sui’s overall design philosophy is centered on UX-first design. It encourages a developer-first ecosystem, which should help innovate and attract users outside of crypto natives. Strategic partnerships, institutional integrations, and a vibrant ecosystem of DeFi protocols are fueling Sui’s momentum. Sui is certainly open to growth and improvement.

DeFi Sector Growth

Sui’s DeFi sector is known for its extremely speedy transaction times and high capital efficiency. This essentially creates an open-ended sandbox for all varieties of financial activities. This highly efficient and resilient infrastructure has laid the foundation for a plethora of DeFi protocols – lending, borrowing, trading and beyond – creating a complex yet agile ecosystem. By keeping transaction times fast and the network affordable, the overall user experience gets stronger, bringing developers and users to the network in droves.

Sui provides a comprehensive developer-friendly environment. You will be armed with an arsenal of tools. These are the Sui CLI, Sui VSCode extension, Sui JS (TypeScript SDK), comprehensive documentation, guides, tutorials, sample code, developer forum, weekly office hours and a Telegram channel for support. With these resources, developers are able to develop and deploy applications more easily.

Additionally, Sui supports the most advanced interoperability protocols, such as Axelar and Wormhole. These integrations make it possible for value and information to flow seamlessly between multiple blockchains, such as Ethereum and Solana. This means that Sui’s connectivity and utility within the wider blockchain ecosystem dramatically increases.

Key Infrastructure and Partnerships

Sui has a huge selection of wallets to increase the accessibility of its ecosystem. This provides users with myriad new ways to easily organize and share their digital assets. Among these wallets are Phantom, Slush (SUI Wallet), Backpack, Ledger, Binance Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, SafePal, Bybit Wallet, Suiet Wallet, Martian Wallet, Ethos Wallet. Each provides exclusive features and advanced security features. With a wide variety of wallets to choose from, users can easily find the wallet that fits their usage and requirements.

Key collaborations and institutional integrations have polygon's pace of growth completely on fire confidence and institutional pipeline large scale capital. These partnerships aren’t just a way to attract more resources, they serve as a vote of confidence in Sui’s ability to be a top DeFi platform. This backing from powerful, well-resourced institutions only strengthens Sui’s foothold in a competitive market and opens the door for future growth.

RPC Node Providers are crucial for dApp development and operation, and Sui has several, including Ankr, RockX, NOWNodes, PublicNode, and Triton One. These providers will ensure seamless and secure access to the Sui network. They truly unlock the power of Web3 by allowing developers to seamlessly build and deploy decentralized applications. Having many RPC node providers improves the network’s stability and performance.

DeFi Protocols and Stablecoin Growth

Sui’s ecosystem is home to a large number of DeFi protocols providing a range of services from lending, borrowing to trading. Some of the prominent protocols building on Base include Suilend, KriyaDEX, Cetus, Turbos and Scallop, making the platform versatile and attractive. For instance, Suilend provides a complete infrastructure ecosystem that combines all essential DeFi services seamlessly, establishing itself as a smart user-focused "one-stop-shop" for all user needs.

Innovative liquid staking solutions such as Haedal Protocol and SpringSui provide the possibility of liquid staking and instant unstaking. These innovations improve the flexibility and accessibility of staking across the Sui network. These solutions give users more flexibility to stake their assets without locking them up for weeks at a time. This method increases liquidity and gets even more people playing. Beyond these unique primitives, the innovation these protocols bring to the Sui ecosystem fuels an overall compelling narrative.

The stablecoin volume on Sui has gone through the roof! It flew from $400 million in January at close to nearly $1.2 billion by May 2025. With monthly stablecoin transfer volume recently surpassing $70 billion, the demand for making use of stablecoin-based transactions on the platform is certainly there. This recent wave of stablecoin activity is a testament to Sui’s increasing adoption and its potential as an ecosystem for financial activities centered around stablecoins.

Future Outlook

Sui’s ongoing roadmap focuses on ecosystem expansion and refinement, with future development including Layer 2 improvements using Zero-Knowledge (ZK) technology. These improvements continue the agency’s efforts to improve the platform’s scalability, security, and privacy. Our intention is to continue to do so at the very forefront of blockchain innovation. The emphasis on Layer 2 solutions and ZK technology shows Sui’s dedication towards long-term, sustainable growth.